The Empire of Gold: 3 (Daevabad Trilogy)

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The titles sound cool and allow the author to strike the right balance between cryptic and engaging. It had everything that I enjoyed about epic fantasy, with the added benefit that it was based, not on the traditional Western European/medieval iconography, but instead on medieval Islamic mythology. I wanted to find out what happened next, but I couldn’t bring myself to actually open the Audible app. But the death of his people and loss of his beloved Nahri have unleashed the worst demons of Dara's dark past. In Empire of Gold, that personal journey delves ever deeper as Nahri navigated all of her past alliances to find a place where she belongs.

I’m not a fan of their relationship, especially not because it took over so much of this book that I had hoped would spend the time on other things. That’s how good the writing, story, and characters are as well as the general dynamic of the storytelling itself. And the ending is full of hope for Daevabad and its people, hope that the wars of the past can be reconciled, that the cycle of vengeance can be ended.I have a minor obsession with getting lost in the pages of a good book, guzzling coffee, and thriving at home.

Forget healing, my specialty should be having my life destroyed and then being forced to rebuild from nothing. The rest of the supernatural world considers them monsters and they are, but they’re also so much more. Chakraborty is damn great at getting my heart racing, whether it’s because a protagonist is facing their own death or holding the hand of a person they secretly love… I’d say the romance, family relationships, and action scenes were the strongest parts of this book. As the novel begins, Nahri and Ali have been swept away to Egypt, while Daevabad has fallen to Manizheh and her loyal enforcer, Dara.

One of the things I loved most about The Empire of Gold, is how it explored the impacts of a ‘rightful’ leader taking back their city. I finished The Empire of Gold, the 3rd and final book, in The Daevabad Trilogy… and I might be broken. The Daevabad trilogy has always explored conflict, and how people no matter how good can-do terrible things in war, and how truth and peace are created by the victors on weak foundations. I remember one particular scene that made me absolutely not want to go to bed before I knew everyone was okay and it kept me reading for hours and hours. The book annotations include character and plot insights, historical and cultural references, and other notes.

These three characters — Nahri, Alizayd, and Dara — all have compelling motivations and personalities. I don’t want to be too spoilery here, but for a book with a high body count generally, it seemed strange that more of the main characters didn’t end up dying. I really enjoyed Empire of Gold, especially its more action-packed scenes that make you fear for the characters. Go Soo and Sunwoo Eunsook reunited with each other 1 decade after they worked in another SBS TV series My Fair Lady where Sunwoo portrayed as the mother of Go Soo's character also.

It seems wrong when so many minor characters died (and there are ways to kill characters that won’t crush the reader’s soul like A Little Life 😅). And, most importantly, he finally decides that he doesn’t want to be the terrifying afshin; he doesn’t want to be a weapon. Chakraborty's debut is desire-soaked, intrigue-laced, and ripe with so-delicious-you'll-sink-your-teeth-into-it worldbuilding and equally mesmerizing characters. I have never done that before in the history of my reading experience after finishing a book - well maybe only one other time - but certainly not since The Empire of Gold, that’s for sure.

But, I do love the way this author manages to conjure a sense of place whether you’re in the mundane or the magical.The “noble sacrifice” is a lazy trope for villain redemption, and I couldn’t be happier at how Chakraborty chucks it in the bin. No offense to Ali, really, I just found myself caring so deeply about the other four so much that the only thing I cared about for Ali was that he didn’t die. This is, of course, utter bullshit, and you need look no farther than the first book my club read together, The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec.